The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 eBook

in the polite Arts of Life. Their Lives have
passed away in an odious Rusticity, in spite of
great Advantages of Person, Genius and Fortune.
There is a vicious Terror of being blamed in some
well-inclin’d People, and a wicked Pleasure
in suppressing them in others; both which I recommend
to your Spectatorial Wisdom to animadvert upon; and
if you can be successful in it, I need not say how
much you will deserve of the Town; but new Toasts
will owe to you their Beauty, and new Wits their
Fame. I am, SIR, Your most Obedient Humble
Servant, Mary.”

T.

I am very much pleased with a Consolatory Letter of
Phalaris, to one who had lost a Son that was a young
Man of great Merit. The Thought with which he
comforts the afflicted Father, is, to the best of my
Memory, as follows; That he should consider Death
had set a kind of Seal upon his Sons Character, and
placed him out of the Reach of Vice and Infamy:
That while he liv’d he was still within the Possibility
of falling away from Virtue, and losing the Fame of
which he was possessed. Death only closes a Man’s
Reputation, and determines it as good or bad.

This, among other Motives, may be one Reason why we
are naturally averse to the launching out into a Man’s
Praise till his Head is laid in the Dust. Whilst
he is capable of changing, we may be forced to retract
our Opinions. He may forfeit the Esteem we have
conceived of him, and some time or other appear to
us under a different Light from what he does at present.
In short, as the Life of any Man cannot be call’d
happy or unhappy, so neither can it be pronounced
vicious or virtuous, before the Conclusion of it.

It was upon this consideration that Epaminondas, being
asked whether Chabrias, Iphicrates, or he himself,
deserved most to be esteemed? You must first
see us die, said he, before that Question can be answered.
[1]

As there is not a more melancholy Consideration to
a good Man than his being obnoxious to such a Change,
so there is nothing more glorious than to keep up
an Uniformity in his Actions, and preserve the Beauty
of his Character to the last.

The End of a Man’s Life is often compared to
the winding up of a well-written Play, where the principal
Persons still act in Character, whatever the Fate
is which they undergo. There is scarce a great
Person in the Grecian or Roman History, whose Death
has not been remarked upon by some Writer or other,
and censured or applauded according to the Genius
or Principles of the Person who has descanted on it.
Monsieur de St. Evremont is very particular in setting
forth the Constancy and Courage of Petronius Arbiter